2023 Year-in-Review

As part of our commitment to building a national movement to make Decision Education a part of every student’s learning experience, every department here at the Alliance—from Research and Public Policy to Development and Community and Partnerships—has worked hard to build the field this past year.

Top Initiatives

As we come to the end of a year marked by exciting growth and development, we take this moment to highlight our top initiatives of 2023:

• We published the Decision Education K-12 Learning Standards. These standards provide a comprehensive framework for students to develop effective decision-making skills and dispositions from elementary school through high school.
• We expanded the Decision Education Teacher Fellowship. Twenty-five Teacher Fellows from across the United States were selected to join the returning 20 Level 2 and six Level 3 Teacher Fellows to engage in sessions focusing on foundational aspects of Decision Education and community building.
• We developed new relationships with supporters and secured funding to continue our work. Alliance staff attended and presented at multiple conferences hosted by national decision science organizations, including the National Association for Media Literacy Education, ExcelinEd’s National Summit on Education, and the Society for Judgment and Decision Making.
• We piloted a Student Forecasting Tournament—an exciting, gamified learning opportunity for students to practice forecasting about real-life events and improve their decision-making skills.
• We awarded 16 graduate students with the first-ever Decision Education Research Scholarship Awards. Recipients hailed from universities worldwide and were recognized for their research demonstrating insight and innovation in the field of Decision Education.
• We launched the second Decision Education Incubator: Exploring Decision-Making Through Media Literacy—an opportunity for schools to design and pilot new instructional models that can be scaled nationally.
• We launched the first Decision Education Research Collaborative, bringing together an interdisciplinary group of researchers with a shared interest in Decision Education to engage in discussions about research findings, share knowledge and resources, and generate new insights about decision-making in childhood and adolescence.
• We began advocacy work and held meetings with legislators and education leaders in several states.
• We expanded our distinguished group of Board and Council members with the additions of Lopa Desai and Simon Hallett on the Alliance Board and Nobel laureate Carl Wieman and Baruch Fischhoff on the Advisory Council.
• We rolled out season 4 of The Decision Education Podcast. Season 4 featured esteemed guests, including Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, organizational psychologist Adam Grant, renowned author Steven Pinker, Google executive Maya Shankar, former administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Cass Sunstein, and professor and expert on decision-making Sheena Iyengar.
• We revamped our website, blog, and newsletters to keep you up to date on trends in the field of Decision Education as well as recent work at the Alliance.
• We published the Decision Education Research Agenda. This agenda is intended to promote and guide more research in the field of Decision Education and to serve as an ongoing and integral part of building a knowledge base of credible evidence that strengthens the field of Decision Education.
• We expanded our staff by 32 percent. The Alliance is committed to building and fostering a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. This year we hired experts in community and partnerships, communications, development, education, and public policy.

Thank You

This expansion and development would not be possible without the support of our network of experts and advisors, teacher fellows, ally organizations, and generous donors. We extend our heartfelt thanks. Together we will continue to advance the field of Decision Education, ensuring that every student is empowered by access to the essential skills and dispositions to make better decisions.